Scott Blog #2

Thursday night was a dream come true for the courageous youth who braved the peering eyes of a judgmental audience; they became vulnerable individuals expressing themselves through a medium that they incorporated to be their own. Because lets face it, what audience is not judging you? They have expectations to be met or broken: they want to be entertained, to be challenged, to laugh and experience something new and for the most part that is exactly what they were met with. To watch these kids progress so much since the first blog is astonishing. As Chris mentioned, it takes years for some of these kids to open up to their teachers, and within a matter of months we were able to teach them, help them and be their friends; not an easy undertaking. Obvious challenges were faced when the dynamics of the group changed from week to week. The omission of some individuals, for example Avanna, drastically changed the attitude of the other youth in her presence. Raven and Reena would work very well in her absence, and the two of them opened up extremely well with Miranda and me as we worked with them one-on-one with their beats. I think the attention they received while being creative helped them foster confidence in the work they were doing. I found though that I was working more with the girls in the class than the guys. But that was partly due to them also asking for my help. It took more work to break down those barriers of "attitude" or "machismo" that some of the boys had so that I could help them. But not all of the guys were like that. Little Mike was thankful for the help, but he also would get easily frustrated when things were not sounding right. But within the last few weeks, I noticed that he wanted to succeed and complete something tangible, and his motivation led him to even rapping over his own beat. At first, the notion of having an all female team seemed to slow things down, but as they realized our intentions and got to know our personalities, their ability to listen and work increased. Obviously, it took more work for the guys to realize that we are not a threat to their identities than for the girls. The experience of giving these youth education through a tool that they can relate to and enjoy develops within them a positive feeling and attitude towards school. For example, I overheard Ryan in his interview exclaiming how doing a project such as this has given him renewed hope in pursuing a future, a higher education. He wants to come to university and he has the motivation to do so. Since this was the first inception of this project, it can only improve and grow from here on. I do wonder how this experience has changed some of the other youth and how it will shape their future decisions. Will they take what they have learned and apply it to their other areas of study? Will their same confidence and motivation fostered here remain with them? How have we impacted their lives as strong female role models? And how has their mentality towards education changed?

Hip hop studies Blog #2

The selected articles from the hip hop studies reader had a general theme of authenticity, roots and culture. Dyson's article outlined the birth and evolution of hip hop from the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" to the social-conscious works of Grandmaster Flash like "the Message" and "New York, New York" to Run DMC's 1987 well-received Raising Hell album. As "hardcore" hip hop become more "pop", it became devoid of meaning and roots and leaned towards the lights of commercialization. But the commodified and public version of hip hop has had a negative effect on the perceptions of hip hop, pinning it as a source of violence, misogyny and stereotypes. Rap as a tool to highlight social isolation, economic hardship, political demoralization and cultural exploitation, either wise known as your conscientious rap, was then replaced by forms that produced images that worked against the rising Afrocentric ideal, replacing it with a more ghettocentric one. It is almost a catch twenty-two: the images rapped about, those being realistic incidents or situations that would have been experienced by "authentic" rappers is then appropriated by the listeners, whom for the most part are middle-class suburban white youth. Hip hop has become a consumer of its own product. Samuels article likewise targets the issue of black music that is no longer black, but rather a modified form that appeals to a white audience, whose tastes in turn articulate the music that is being produced by black artists to create "gangsta" music. Such music is self-glorifying for whites and self-depreciating for black, for the images of ghettocenricity only feed the disparity between classes: what blacks live and what whites could only hope to live. It defines the white audience in contrast to the message within the rap. It is clear that this form is not the authentic form of rap, but why should one form of rap, create a bad rap (no pun intended) for the other rap genres? This constant battle to be authentic continues to jump from its original party intentions to nation-conscious rap to gangsta rap back to conscious rap and to the black aesthetic rap of the American Dream as mentioned in Baldwin's article; a constant state of flux ( J ).

I have to admit that my reading of Gilroy's article seemed to be above my head as to what I could properly discern from it. The idea of Afrocentricity and national identity as opposed to the hegemic norm is based within the construct of the home, not the nuclear home, but the home belonging to race. Home can no longer be considered a static place, as the diaspora and the general displacement of race across boundaries, including those other than America, demands a more opening, inclusive term that allows for an identification of a "greater" home. Personally, I think nationalism in general creates divides that exists only in our contrast to other races or countries. But race itself is a debilitating term that contends one group of people against another. Afrocentricity is a means of placing oneself in contrast to the hegemic norm, by finding a home within a displaced home. If we consider ourselves as one human race, then these notions of identification based on color and differences in appearance and origin will bear no weight. Likewise, if I consider myself a world citizen, rather than a citizen of Canada, then my connections with culture is a broad one that allows for the appropriation of other forms without the conception that I or that previous form is no longer authentic. I realize I am probably off topic of what Gilroy was getting at, but I think this tangent is important when considering hip hops authenticity internationally, which surely ties into Forman and Bennett's discussion of the genre. Bennett states the earlier schools of thought of hip hop's authenticity but proposes that modern theories now include the idea that hip hop is a mobile culture that is constantly being re-made to meet the needs of each new group or country that appropriates it.

I would like to take his theory one step further with an interpolation of my own and propose that if this mentality of world citizenship was adopted, then the notion of culture as a global commodity that is constantly being reshaped through interactions and appropriations would deem more appropriate for it allows authenticity not to be rooted in one specific place, or attached to one race, but rather be a global term than is never fixed. This may seem like an over-wash of a highly complicated spatiality that Forman uses as an organizing principle, for if we perceive ourselves with no boundaries than space is a limitless entity that we may weave ourselves through without questioning whether or not what you have "incorporated" or "appropriated" is truly you, or an amalgamation of others identities. This is an interesting point I would like to pursue at some point, but not for my current research at hand. As we have seen in these articles, locality greatly influences the sound that is being produced and how it is taken on by new groups. It is not my place to deem the hip hop that is being created in Regina is an authentic form of the culture overall, but it is authentic to Regina as a place, because the individual and communal experiences that take place within Regina are authentic to the rappers who rap about them. It is not like the Bronx or Harlem has to be packed up and shipped up here in order for someone to rap about similar experiences, so there is no doubt in my mind that hip hop here can be claimed as authentic in its new form. How does Forman's idea of place, space and race fit into my research? Well, I can make an early observation and say that it affects things dearly. But what about this idea of begin a world citizen? Does the artists and producers I am going to interview have the same world view, or do they likewise define their sound by their space? And if so, do they consider their sound as authentic to hip hop culture, or authentic to the place in which they live?

Hip-Hop Studies – Part 1

Thus far I have read the first chapter in That's The Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader and have found it very intriguing. I noticed that the opening Foreword by Michael Eric Dawson is from the Prelude of Dawson's book Know What I Mean (2007). Just that little reference validated the forthcoming material as being an important contribution to the discourse on hip-hop. Within the first part on history, the inclusion of different viewpoints provides both a subjective and objective vantage around the culture, origins and evolution of hip-hop. The introduction emphasizes the ever-increasing body of scholarly research on hip-hop. It paints a picture of how I fit into such a young discipline and how crucial it is for me to situate myself in a way that will not be criticized as being too academic or too colloquial. I must maintain a discourse that enlightens a specific area of hip-hop, without being considered the outsider that might tend to utilize the culture to my own advantage. Since I cannot claim any authenticity to hip-hop's roots, I can only stress my own cultural intermingling with the culture through being first exposed to it by my brother, who as a youth was very much active in rapping and beat-boxing. Exposure to him and various other friends were involved in a version of hip-hop that was resituated to suit the needs of the youth that appropriated it. It is reassuring to know that research on hip-hop is not being approached with the same skepticism it once received. The inclusion of hip-hop in pop-cultural studies and music courses validates its ever-increasing presence within society. And the institutionalization of the genre in places like Harvard and Regina allow for further studies, that still raises questions of authenticity, and whether or not transplanting something that originated in the streets of New York can be authentically re-created and studied in an academic atmosphere. It really depends on the individuals and what their definition tends to include. But since culture is always a continuous process of growth, assimilation and development, it only seems natural that the culture of hip-hop will evolve and incorporate itself into other levels of class, race and culture.

The various contributions in Part one include perspectives that include an academic voice, a more colloquial, "street" language article, vignettes from Billboard and a primary interview between three founding fathers of hip-hop. These different approaches, as mentioned earlier, have obvious difference in tones and writing styles. The academic style approaches the subject in a straight and objective fashion. The more informal article uses somewhat of a sarcastic yet insulting tone that discredits the readers ability to be interested in the subject matter. Phrases such as "Word up" and "The first ass spin!?!" color the article. However, an article that uses language typical with the culture and that resonates with individuals who participate in the culture would be more likely read by them because it is accessible to them in terms of language. Likewise, this subjective viewpoint has its advantages. There is more reference in this article to specific terminology around breaking and to specific artists and crews; something that an academic approach my miss if they were not intrinsically involved in the culture. How will my approaches change now that I've just witnessed various frameworks? As for my research, it seems important to find that balance between writing something in the escalade that only academics would be interested in reading. I must also steer clear of a truly ubiquitous and simple generalization of a specific culture that warrants a breadth of scholarly integrity. What is also useful is the interview approach that questions the originators of the hip-hop culture. Questions used here serve as a basis for me to adapt into the initial questions that I have been compiling. A further reading of the studies reader will provide additional insights into methods and techniques that may be helpful in my own research.